The Sharks have been here before; they lost three straight to the Red Wings after jumping out to a 3-0 series lead over Detroit in 2011. But they won Game 7 three years ago, and they're confident they'll do it again against the Kings tonight. (AP)

Bruin-killer Thomas Vanek is getting ready for the Montreal-Boston series, but it may be the only one he ever plays in: According to reports, the Wild are prepared to do whatever it takes to get him to Minnesota when he becomes a free agent in July. (Pro Hockey Talk)

The anger and fury sparked by the Donald Sterling tapes had the potential to blow apart the NBA. Adam Silver -- unlike his predecessor David Stern, who turned a blind eye to Sterling's oily behavior for three decades -- brought all sides together by doing the right thing. (Yahoo! Sports)

The next step in the Sterling ban is getting the other owners to vote him out of the club. There needs to be 75 percent agreement among the remaining 29 teams, and an informal poll done by the Associated Press indicates reaching that threshold won't be a problem. (AP)

It's unlikely Sterling's going to down without a fight, but the NBA's previously "secret" constitution and by-laws -- secret because the league never let anyone see them before yesterday -- show that Silver may actually have legal standing for the draconian punishment he handed down. (Yahoo! Sports)

As many of us suspected, NBA players -- all of them involved in the playoffs, in fact -- were prepared to boycott last night's games if Silver hadn't dropped the hammer on Sterling. (NBC's Pro Basketball Talk)

The father of Serena and Venus Williams says he'll never go back to Indians Wells after his daughters were taunted with racial epithets there in 2001. But if they want to play there he'll support them, because they were taught to make their own decisions. (AP)